Mobile costs for businesses 'are unnecessary'

British companies could save on their mobile phone costs by switching to a voice network that makes use of both fixed and portable connections, it has been suggested.

A survey conducted by YouGov for VoIP firm Inclarity found that 65 per cent of employees in the UK make work-related calls from their office mobile phone more than twice a day.

But the advent of fixed mobile convergence (FMC) may make the cost of making these calls unnecessary, Inclarity suggested.

FMC makes use of VoIP services to allow one handset to link to a fixed IP network and then switch to a wireless connection when out of range.

According to the survey of over 2,000 British workers, some 42 per cent would welcome the availability of at least one FMC device as it could be used as a home, mobile and office phone all in one.

Dave Millett, the operations director for Inclarity, said: "FMC could save UK businesses a significant amount of money as well as ensure better efficiency of staff."

He added that workers using mobiles while in the office effectively means that businesses are "throwing money away" and suggested that significant cost savings could be seen by making use of FMC handsets.

Mr Millett added: "The key to FMC deployment within businesses is that they use a tried and tested business-grade solution, rather than deploying Skype-like products and expecting it to be business ready."